I had a relaxed start. I was flying today and whilst I had a few targets around Phoenix my main aim was a bit of shopping. In what little spare time I have these days, in addition to birding, travel, photography, wine, gardening and growing tropical plants I am also quite keen on Lego. This stems from my earliest years, and now I find myself in the enviable position of being able to buy sets which would have been quite beyond me as a child. Lego has of course moved on, and they make sets in the full knowledge that these are being bought by adults and not children. There is even an acronym, AFOL, which stands for Adult Fans Of Lego. Why am I telling you this? I've no idea but in the US this seems a lot more mainstream, and in addition to branded Lego stores there are also a great many second-hand Lego stores. These essentially recycle Lego, selling parts, minifigures, boxed and unboxed sets both current and really quite old. The value of a boxed Lego set from, say, 20 years ago is frankly mind-boggling. If I had not opened any of my Christmas presents from the 1980s and instead carefully squirreled them away on shelves in a darkened room I would be sitting on a gold mine. As it is.... Anyway, my plan today involved visiting a few of these shops - most of which operated under the "Bricks and Minifigs" franchise, going to some thrift stores to try and find various things that the kids wanted, and trying for a few birds along the way.
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| Heaven on earth in many ways |
Once I bade farewell to the family I decided to start with a bird. Fortuitously another Greater Pewee had turned up to replace the one I had dipped at the San Pedro river. This was about 30 minutes drive from Queen Creek at a public golf course called Stripe Show Golf, and on arrival the bird was clearly not in the trees next to the car park that it was normally in. I felt it was still around though and started roving the golf course hole by hole in search of it. I don't know if I was allowed to do this but there were more green keepers than golfers at this particular point in the day and they seemed friendly enough once I told them what I was doing. My persistence paid off reasonably quickly, I found it around the seventh hole that I checked. Nice.
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| Greater Pewee |
This was my last success however. At the Gilbert Riparian Preserve I had a pleasant wander around finding quite a few new species for the list at this late stage - Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Dowitcher, Black-crowned Night Heron, Pelican and Buff-bellied Pipit. I an hour or so I got up to nearly 40 despite the MLK day crowds that had meant I was unable to find a parking spot and had had to park in the adjacent library. It's a great birding spot for anyone new to the area with a good mix of waders, waterfowl and common southern passerines like Abert's Towee, Great-tailed Grackle, Black Phoebe, Verdin and so on.
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| American Wigeon |
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| Green-winged Teal |
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| Anna's Hummingbird |
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| Gila Woodpecker |
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| Curve-billed Thrasher |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron |
After some minor shopping and a grabbed lunch I moved on to Vista Canyon Park in the heat of the day looking for Rosy‑faced Lovebirds. I mean these aren't even real birds but yet here I was. I did a couple of listless circuits but the place was dead as. I reported a really pale Collared Dove as African which later drew the ire of the eBird Police, and moved swiftly on the the next Goodwill.
Running out of time as always I returned to Rio Vista Community Park. Charlotte and I had come here in 2025 for Mexican Duck. Well, I had come here for Mexican Duck, Charlotte had been forced to accompany me. Although actually that entire trip was for her benefit. Anyhow, the target today was a long-staying Grey Hawk. I managed Cooper's Hawk and Harris's Hawk, but the Grey Hawk had had a tangle with one of these the previous day and decided to move on. I found Costa's Hummingbird in a low bush for the trip list, but reluctantly had to call it a day.
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| Cooper's Hawk |
At last knockings I went passed by Glendale Recharge Ponds, another 2025 site. This time I was after an Arizona tick, Lesser Yellowlegs, but I could only find Greater. Plenty of Killdeer, a few Least Sandpiper, and hundreds of Pintail and Teal. I was done. I packed up by the side of the ponds, and made a last minute dash to a nearby Walmart to stock up on Cheetos before heading to Skyharbor. The flight left at half eight and I slept for a very healthy portion of it.
An incredible trip, and even though I missed a few things it easily surpassed expectations and I obliterated my immediate target of 600 species for the USA, finishing on 608 - more on that in the next post, the traditional "trip list" one. And then I'm done and I can get back to Wanstead as that has been, ahem, err, hmmm....
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